Terrible Twos

Awhile ago we were talking to a mother of a 2 year old who informed us that when her son turned two he turned into an asshole. I hadn't heard quite that version of terrible twos before, but I think I'm now experiencing it. Charlie will be sweet as pie one minute and then the monster of all monsters the next minute. He tests us about every little thing like putting on clothes in the morning or holding hands while crossing the street. I'm worried that I'm going to turn into the type of mother that lets her child out wearing pajamas the whole day because I can't face the fight. He literally went out the other day wearing two different pairs of shoes! Not two different socks - two different shoes!! I was mortified but I couldn't face the boneless screaming to get him to wear a matching pair.

Thank goodness for Diego. Diego is the sweetest baby and seems to sleep better than Charlie already! He doesn't mind Charlie's kisses or his body slams. He does still get me sometimes with his multiple consecutive poos, but other than that he is the best. My favorite is that he loves to stay cozy in bed and would happily stay cuddled up until 10am if he could. Unfortunately work and big brother's breakfast usually get in the way.

Other than the temper tantrums we've been having a great time with the fall weather. Last weekend we visited aunt Mary in Waterford for our annual pilgramage to the Waterford Fair. Charlie loved the Civil War re-enactors who marched (or "stomped" as he calls it) through the town. He got to ride on tractors, pose in a painting and try popcorn. We've been practicing our stomping ever since.

After his lobster truck love affair we decided to visit the food truck extravaganza this weekend. Charlie wasn't as taken with the lobster truck this time around but Carlos and I got to enjoy the TaKorean food after a 30 minute wait in line. These food trucks are making a killing! Check out the line:

We also had a great picnic on Saturday with friends which included some unathletic looking tennis and volleyball but the food was great and I was happy to be exercising outside. It's been awhile!

Sunday we got treated to Mark's super carrot pancake concoction. I totally want to hire him as my manny.

Back to Work

Last week was my first week back to work. It went smoothly only because I work from home and Diego was my lunch date everyday. He takes the bottle okay, but not happily and he refuses a pacifier. Charlie is happy about that because he got to add Diego's pacifiers to his growing collection. He like to go to sleep with a pacifier stuck on each finger. Diego started smiling but I've had a tough time capturing a smile in a picture. He is also continuing to get chunkier and grow out of all his newborn clothes. We went to the doctor last week to check his eyes and he weighed in at 11 lbs 10 ounces. He is still playing catch up to Charlie who was 12 lbs at 4 weeks, but I figure that Diego should get a 2 week handicap because he came early and Charlie cooked longer.

Last weekend we had so much fun visiting the waterfront park, going to the H street festival and to friend's birthday party. Charlie loved running in the fountain and did not want to leave. Luckily there was a bbq truck there and I lured him out of the fountain with promises of bbq chicken.

The birthday was so much fun and included a hard hat which Charlie refused to take off. He wanted to wear it to bed and it was the first thing he put on the next day. He calls himself a worker boy when he wears it. And he loves to help do work around the house. Here he is helping his father with the light and I'll try to upload a video of him building shelves. I think he'll surpass his father's skills by age 4....

Charlie seems to have adjusted to toddler bed. He hasn't fallen out yet, but I did find him the other night with his head and arms hanging off the back and his feet nearly upright and caught in the back rails. It didn't look comfortable, but he was fast asleep. At some point I'd love to video his sleep and watch how he does 180 turns, stays asleep and manages not to fall out.

My favorite new term is his version of cinnamon - it sounds something like cinnaminimon. One of my fond memories of maternity leave (and sadly only weekends now) was all of us sitting on the porch drinking foamy lattes. Charlie had to stick with foamy milk with cinnamon. He loves it! Here he is saying it:

I may be in the baby honeymoon phase (or maybe it helps that Diego is a much better sleeper than Charlie was) but this is the happiest time. And Carlos has started declaring that Charlie is now at his favorite age. In fact Charlie often asks for daddy over mommy. On Wednesday Charlie and I commuted to his playschool along with the thousands of other people heading to work. It was hysterical - I was pushing him in his car so he would honk his horn as he sang the Old MacDonald song at the top of his lungs as we passed by people dressed in suits and ties. The juxtaposition was the best and made me so happy.

Family Visits

Some of the highlights from last week include: a visit from tia Veronika, chasing a lobster truck and being on duty at Charlie's playschool. It seemed like an active week, but I guess it's all relative when getting out the door is a big accomplishment. The good news for us is that Charlie seems to be getting back to his sweet self (with sporadic temper tantrums) and his sleep schedule. The bad news is that we are at the end of our family visits. Carlos' sister was here last weekend and Charlie adored her...and of course it was a huge help to us. He seems to have a hard time saying 'veronika' so it is more like 'mronika.' It was depressing to see her go and know that our planned family visits were over.

Charlie and I chased a food truck 4 blocks last week, stopped to ask the policeman where it was headed, flagged the truck down and then waited in line until Charlie fell asleep in my arms. That scenario has been replaying in Charlie's head for days now. He still talks about chasing the lobster truck and standing in line - understandably it gets a little fuzzy for him after that. Another thing that seems to catch his imagination are cute girls. He is captivated by two girls his age - neither of whom he has really talked to/played with and definitely to whom he wasn't particularly nice. Seeing pictures of them on the computer is only slightly out ranked by his demands to see pictures of trains.

We went to Roosevelt Island to take a family friendly 'hike' in hopes of exposing Charlie to more nature. He loved it -- the only problem was that the part that he loved was around the Roosevelt statue which was mainly concrete and empty fountains. He did pick up a few rocks and we saw a turtle in the Potomac so I guess that's a little bit of nature! We had a yummy meal afterwards

And finally I'm not even sure how to describe my experience being on duty at Charlie's playschool. It was chaos and 4 kids screamed the entire time. That's a lot of tears. Charlie even complained and I was on duty! I can only imagine how he is when I'm not there. Don't let these sweet, sitting children in the picturesfool you!

Firsts

This past week Diego had his one month doctors appointment and Charlie had his first day of playschool. Diego, like Charlie, is putting on the pounds early! Although he was only 6 lbs 15 ounces at birth he weighed 10 lbs 3 oz at the doctor's visit - 3+ lbs in a month! I asked the doctor if I should worry about him eating too much (e.g. an obese baby) but she said they don't worry about that with breastfed babies. I guess that means they do actually worry about baby obesity with formula fed babies. He hasn't quite made it to the 99th percentile like Charlie, but he is definitely starting to get chubby cheeks and the multiple chins. Unfortunately his chubb isn't making him more jolly as we still haven't had an official happy smile (only gas smiles). And really unfortunate is that I think he might have reflux or some over-eating problem as he will do a projectile puke at times.

Charlie started his cooperative playschool last week and while he loves all the toys he kept asking where his mom went. When I arrived they said "He sure likes cars and trucks." I guess the on duty parents couldn't get him to do the hand print activity because he wouldn't let go of the cars in his hands. He was clearly kindof sad when I arrived, but then wanted to show me all the toys and didn't want to leave. I think this will be fun for him eventually and give him his own time away from Diego, BUT it made me realize that this is the beginnings of many years of making school lunches. I already don't like it and it's only the second week. Besides the prepping and packing is the fact that I think the othe parents will judge me for what I pack. Last week I packed him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cheese and fruit and then was scolded when I arrived for packing something with peanuts. They wouldn't open his lunch because some girl in class might have a peanut allergy. When I asked why the girl would be eating his sandwich I was told that all the kids eat eachothers lunch so it becomes more of a communal picnic. duh. I wanted to say that I thought we might develop free rider problem and that perhaps school lunchs should be treated as a public good. But I shut my mouth and apologized.

This weekend we went to Kidsfest at Lincoln Park and Charlie discovered the joys of glue sticks! He also decided to decorate himself instead of the stroller.

Twos

It is tough to tell what is normal two year old behavior and what is Charlie adjusting to Diego's presence. For instance bedtime/naptime used to be as easy as reading some books and putting Charlie in his crib. But in the last month or so he has been trying all sorts of delay tactics (read another book, need something to eat, etc) and in the last two weeks decided that if we didn't agree to his wishes he would climb out of his crib. This weekend we finally converted it to a toddler bed which he can climb in and out of, but both bedtime and naptime entailed an hour of convincing him to go to sleep. Here are Carlos and Charlie working on the crib together.

This week was also traumatic because Charlie had to get more blookwork done. It took both Carlos and me to hold him down. He was so traumatized by the last bloodwork which was done without a pediatric needle that he went ballistic when he realized what was going on. Fortunately we found the best guy in town but that meant driving past Sibley to go find him. He did a great job despite the kicking and screaming. Charlie recovered pretty quickly thanks to the toy we brought him.

Luckily we still had family in town to help this past week. Charlie loved playing with Abuela; they went to the park for hours and made every toy in the house practice going pee in the toilet. I'm still not convinced that we'll survive without family here to help...We have also been blown away by how nice people are! Friends (and strangers) have brought over yummy food and taken such good care of us.

Diego is still super sweet. He has taught Charlie the words acne and pimples! His infant acne is terrible and the receding hairline isn't doing much for his looks. But I think he is the cutest thing ever. It is still amazing to me how quickly we've fallen in love with our new addition and can't imagine the family without him.

Not My Favorite Age

Every age used to be my favorite up until Charlie hit 2 years and had to adjust to a little brother. He is defiant, whiney and his sleep as gone nuts. He is waking up at crazy hours and has refused his nap twice since Diego's arrival.

When he isn't whining it is fun having conversations with Charlie. I remember when he was piecing together a few words and now he tries to tell full stories (though you need to know the plot to follow along :)). And yesterday I noticed how he is trying to use the past tense - though he still needs some help with the conjugating...He answers almost every yes/no question with "no." Here is how the questions go:

"Do you want to eat your dinner?" 'NO'

"Do you want ice cream with chocolate?" 'NO'

"Can you say the word Yes?" 'NO'.

I'm not sure he even knows the word yes. On the flip side he likes to ask lots of questions but not listen to the answer:

"What are you doing Daddy?" "I'm working Charlie"

"What are you doing Daddy?" "I'm doing work"

"What are you doing Daddy?"....I guess he doesn't like the answer because he'll just keep asking the question over and over and over.

My favorite phrase these days is "go-seek-it" - which means he wants you to go hide or he'll hide and then continually yell "Where's Charlie?!"

Diego is doing great. He gained 1 lb 4 oz by his 2 week appointment! I wasn't surprised given how much he likes to eat. He is definitely turning into a chubby little baby. He loves being held and cruising around in the stroller. My two favorite times are when we take naps together in the afternoon and his naked time out on the porch. He enjoys checking out the trees diaper free as Charlie plays in the water and I use it as an excuse for happy hour. I noticed that he is getting infant acne and when I looked back on Charlie's baby pictures this was around the same time that Charlie had a terrible receding hair line and infant acne.

I'll add to the list of observations from last week that family is key. My mom was here last week and Carlos' mom is here this week. I'm not sure how we'll manage without them. In fact I burst into tears when my mom left. Charlie appreciates all the attention and I appreciate not having to wake up with Charlie in the morning!

From Womb to World

It is amazing how quickly I forgot what it is like to have a newborn. I thought I'd document some observations for next time around:

1) Always use a changing pad: I put Diego on the bed to perform what I thought would be a quick diaper change. A sponge bath, outfit change and change of bed sheets later I was finally ready to get out the door.

2) Baby voices are instinctual? Charlie even uses a baby voice when talking to Diego. He likes to get really close to Diego's face and in a high pitched tone say "Hi Diego, hi Diego, hi Diego, hi Diego" about 10 times.

3) Two year olds aren't babies anymore: Until Diego arrived we referred to Charlie as our baby. But in the last two weeks he seems to have become a giant. Despite his size (relative to his brother) he still needs some babying. He certainly is growing into his big brother role, but I need to remember that up until 2 weeks ago he was the little baby.

4) Newborns sleep a lot: Diego doesn't have many new tricks other than opening his eyes.

5) Budget way more time than I think I need to do anything. I always tease Carlos for how poorly he estimates the duration of house projects and yet I seem to do the same with the kids. I thought 30 minutes was enough time to get out of the house, but that was a joke. I also thought that the drive from Philly to DC would take the normal 2.5 hours. HA! Charlie, Diego and I drove back from Philly and got to know all the service centers along the drive. Charlie had to go pee, Diego was hungry, Charlie manuevered himself partially out of his car seat, Diego did a poo...We stopped 4 times and arrived an hour late.

5) Plan for things to go wrong: 10 minutes after my mom, Diego, Charlie and I had gotten out the door to go for a walk the house alarm went off so my mom went running home leaving the 3 of us at the pizza place. We got up to start walking and it started to pour rain so we went to Starbucks to wait out the rain. Charlie paced around Starbucks singing the wheels on the bus song and then demanded to go pee. It's not easy to help Charlie go pee in a public bathroom while holding a newborn! The rain caused flooding in the basement and caused all the power to go off in the house. 4 hours later half the house had power and so to salvage all the food in the fridge we had to pull it out and run an extension cord into the hallway. Here is Charlie eating pizza before the rain and singing in Starbucks.

6) Kimono shirts are key: I'm still cycling through the 5 kimono shirts I have - including 3 from the hospital (one from Charlie's birth, one from Diego's birth and one that Carlos talked the hospital into giving us)

7) I'm always going to forget something: No matter how well I think I packed the diaper bag I am always missing something. And whatever it is I forgot we are sure to need or want. Oh well.

8) Don't try to get anything done in a day: I'm much happier this time around as I don't bother to try to be productive. I usually only have one had free at a time and that's just enough to throw the ball to Charlie or read a book.